News Flash: Baptized by the Sheriff

I know that not many people can make that claim. Doyne Bailey,the future Sheriff of Travis County baptized me. He went on to become the Director or the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission under Governor Ann Richards. I always thought how ironic that an ordained Southern Baptist Preacher could grow up and run the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

Doyne Bailey came to Kinney Avenue Baptist Church in Austin to lead a youth revival. He came in an old hearse from Arkansas. This boy was crazy.

While leading the revival, the current preacher at Kinney Avenue resigned and the deacons asked Doyne to serve as the interim pastor.

I love this man; I think he is a great person. Not many people got to know him like I did.

While interim pastor at Kinney Avenue, his future father-in-law, Wyatt Hall, lead me to a decision to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. My sister, Diana, made a decision for Christ about the same time.

Doyne scheduled me and my sister and another lady to be baptized at the same time. It was pretty scary thing for me.

While dunking me in the water, Doyne slipped and almost dropped me. We recovered and no one knew what had happened. We were in the dressing room and Doyne looked at me and said, “Not bad for the first time”. We were the first people that Doyne ever baptized. I looked at him and said; “Now you tell me”.

I can’t say enough good things about Doyne. He is a great guy. He is a real person. I have more stories to tell about him. But let me tell you, he had a real influence on my life.

Doyne was like a real life Andy Griffith to me. That is saying something good.